


Not Quite Paradise

by Beth_Mac



Series: Somebody's Hero [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Father's Day, Found Family, Parent Phil Coulson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:02:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24701260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Mac/pseuds/Beth_Mac
Summary: Because Phil Coulson is a family man, before anything else.
Relationships: Leo Valdez & Piper McLean, Phil Coulson & Leo Valdez, Phil Coulson/Audrey Nathan
Series: Somebody's Hero [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/732309
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	1. the limits of the possible

**Author's Note:**

> And we’re back. 
> 
> Trigger warnings: Near-loss of a child, PTSD, PTSD in children, past child abuse, child characters as soldiers, canon temporary character deaths, near-loss of a parent, major physical injury, nightmares.
> 
> Just to warn you, there are some references that will make utterly _no_ sense when you read them. If you figured out which fandom is being referred to, you get some free foreshadowing and an idea of how the possible sequel to this quartet is going to go. If you don’t, you’ll just get some confusion from it instead. 
> 
> I've edited [She's Somebody's Hero](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10914144) and [The Rising](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734256/chapters/34060019) due to having to move some scenes around, mostly in 2011, to make this fic work.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.-Arthur C. Clarke
> 
> In which Phil Coulson's life changes forever. Multiple times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for reference, Leo and Coulson met in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 2006. 
> 
> I did absolutely no research on adoption for this. Just so you know. 
> 
> I know, I should've posted this on Sunday or Monday. I wrote all day Sunday, was busy celebrating Father's Day with my dad and grandpa on Monday, then I had writer's block on Tuesday. I got slowed down a little Wednesday night, due to burning my middle finger, so I had to type one-handed until the finger stopped hurting enough to be bandaged. Then I couldn't type with that finger until several hours later. 
> 
> In a similar but irrelevant vein, I got a rather nice sunburn on both arms and parts of one leg on Monday. So that was fun.

**2006**

The kid doesn’t want to look at him.

Phil’s barely been able to get two words out of him all day, and even that’s just his first name and his age. A word to one of the computer geeks on the op turns up his full name and his status as a foster kid—mother deceased, father unknown—who was reported missing in April. 

It's not the first time he's wound up looking after a child during a mission. Kidnappings, hostage situations, or in this case, an 084 in a minor's possession—plenty of missions involve children, and it's usually a matter of handing them over to an agent who has kids of their own for a few hours until a parent or a relative is found.

But there's no parent who can come pick this kid up. There's no relative who wants him. His last set of foster parents lost their license for waiting so long to report his disappearance. And the way he huddles next to the plane window—only responding to doe-eyed, soft-spoken Agent Alvarez, who's showing him how to make a helicopter out of pipe cleaners, flinching every time a male agent gets too close to him—Phil will be damned if he dumps the kid back into foster care.

 _I wasn’t late,_ he thinks, as if it could reach across two decades and five hundred miles, to that boy in Indiana who had seemingly seen this day coming. _Now what?_

But then Leo refuses to go with Agent Alvarez when they land, instead clinging to Phil's hand and quietly asking to stay with him, and Phil thinks, _Oh._

 _So_ that's _what he was talking about._

The other agents shoo the pair of them off to Medical, saying they’ll cover for Phil at the debriefing. Medical’s waiting room is as crowded as it usually is; there are always agents who are just back from their latest missions or who’ve been injured on-site. The injuries range from small cuts to bullet holes, but the nurse running intake zeroes in on the small boy at Phil’s side and ushers them off to the side, where Dr. Abidemi—the closest person SHIELD has to a pediatrician—takes charge of them and leads them into a private examination room. She asks Phil to step out while she examines Leo; it’s another fifteen minutes before she comes out to talk to him. 

“So you can see here,” she says, tilting Leo’s brand-new chart towards Phil, “that he’s only one hundred twenty-five centimeters tall, or about forty-nine inches. That’s right on the edge of the bottom fifth percentile for Hispanic boys his age. More concerning, he only weighs twenty kilograms, or about forty-four pounds, which is dangerously underweight. He needs to weigh at least fifty pounds to be healthy; most boys his age weigh fifty-six pounds or so.”

Phil ignores the clenching in his gut as he studies the chart. “What else?” he asks quietly. 

“He has almost no fat on his body. He’s been fed decently for a few months, but before that he was most likely starving. And beyond that, well…” Dr. Abidemi purses her lips. “There’s a golf-ball-sized dent in the back of his skull. From the size and shape of the indentation, it was caused by impact with something round and hard. And it most likely wasn’t an accident.” 

Phil’s heart almost stops. 

“It’s at least a year old,” the doctor tells him. “Leo isn’t saying what caused it, but Legal is working on getting his medical records from his social worker.” 

Phil nods at this, and soon after, Leo is released into his care, hugging himself tightly in the too-big army jacket he’d been wearing when they found him. It takes some coaxing to get the boy to climb into his car, but eventually Phil accomplishes it. 

The drive back to his apartment is silent; Leo stares out of the backseat window, watching the raindrops drip off the roof of the car. Phil keeps the wipers quiet, not wanting to startle him. By the time they pull up to the apartment building, the sun has long since gone down; his headlights reflect off the front of the building in the late-twilight haze. 

“We’re here,” he says quietly, meeting Leo’s eyes in the rearview mirror. 

Leo nods and undoes his seatbelt, practically scrambling to get out of the car. Phil does the same at a more sedate pace. At the front door, Leo hangs back nervously and waits for Phil to push open the door before following him in; the pattern repeats itself at the elevator and at Phil’s apartment door. 

“So this is my place,” he tells Leo, suddenly nervous. “You can stay in the guest bedroom; I’m not sure how comfortable it’ll be.” _More comfortable that what you’re used to,_ Phil thinks. Even his cheap little apartment in one of the shittier parts of the city had to be better than the streets.

Leo nods stiffly, still rooted in the entryway, looking around the main room. 

“I have to get up early tomorrow morning. You can sleep in if you want, but I'd like you to be up by nine—nah, let's make it nine-thirty. Is that all right?" 

“That’s okay,” Leo says, and Phil does his best not to startle—it’s the first thing he’s heard Leo say since they got to Medical. 

He starts to loosen his tie, before he remembers another issue. “Do you want to shower now, or in the morning?” he asks. It’s not that he minds rearranging his schedule, but it’s better to know that to use up all the hot water. 

“I can shower now,” Leo says softly. 

Phil leans down and starts untying his shoes. “Then in that case, I’ll change into night clothes now, and then you can have the shower. Okay?” 

“Okay.” 

Leo finally starts to move, slipping his shoes off and carefully positioning them by the front door before slinking off in the direction of the guest bedroom. Phil waits until the bathroom light flicks on before turning towards his own room, where his pajamas and his bed are waiting for him. 

There’s going to be hell to pay in the morning, Phil knows, but that’s the morning’s problem. For now, Leo is safe, and that’s enough.

* * *

Phil wakes up to the blare of his phone ringing. 

“Coulson,” he greets whoever’s on the other end as he swings his legs out of bed. Hopefully he doesn’t sound as tired as he feels. 

“If you want to ask me how my morning is going,” Director Fury gripes, “you transported a minor across state lines yesterday, without the permission of his legal guardian, while on official SHIELD business. How do you _think_ my morning is going?” 

“In all fairness, Sir, he doesn’t have a legal guardian,” Phil points out, unclipping a clean pair of slacks from the hanger. 

“Then without the permission of his social worker, one Mr. Jacob Wheeler, who has spent the last hour playing an increasingly-impolite game of phone tag with Legal.” 

Phil checks the time—just shy of eight—and does some quick time-zone math. “He’s been doing this since six a.m.?” 

_”Yes,”_ Fury sighs. “You see what I’m dealing with?” 

Now that he has socks and a shirt on, Phil starts heading into the kitchen, making noncommittal noises as Fury gripes into his ear. 

“Look, I know you just got back from a mission,” Fury says. “But I need you to come in to work today and help sort this out.” 

Phil stops and thinks about it. “I may be able to come in for a few hours,” he says cautiously. “But I’d rather not leave Leo home alone.” 

Fury sighs. “You’re keeping him, aren’t you.” 

Phil pauses. “Only for a month or two,” he says softly. “Only until we can find someone to adopt him. He seems like a good kid, who’s had a long run of bad breaks, and I think all he needs is a chance to turn his luck around.” 

Fury chuckles at that. “And you think being taken in by a _SHIELD agent_ will work for that?” 

“Can’t be worse than what he’s already been through.” 

Once again, Fury sighs. “Are you sure you’ve got room for a kid in your life? He has some extended family in Houston; you could look into—” 

“There is _no way_ I’m making him go back,” Phil interrupts firmly, pulling the cupboard door open harder than he means to; thankfully, he catches it before it slams. “I don’t want to know what his ‘family’ will do if they’re forced to take him in.” He hears movement in the other room, as if a certain someone is trying to listen in while being as quiet as possible. 

“Where’s the kid now?” Fury asks. 

“At my apartment, where else?” 

“You have an _apartment?”_

 _”Yes,_ I have an apartment. Where did you _think_ I lived?” 

“I was thinking you went down to the nearest Internet cafe and plugged yourself in to charge overnight,” Fury quips. 

Phil’s brain nearly stops at the fact that _Nick Fury_ just made a _joke_. “I’m not a _robot!”_ he splutters out, barely hearing the stifled giggle in the hallway. Recovering slightly, he says, “Look, sir, no matter what the baby— _junior_ agents say, I’m not actually a robot.” 

He can just _hear_ Fury rolling his eyes before he speaks again. “Look. Taking care of a kid is time-consuming. Taking care of a traumatized kid is even _more_ time-consuming. Are you sure that this is the best arrangement for both of you?” 

Phil isn’t quite sure what he says to that; he may have threatened to resign before forcefully hanging up. For all of his care earlier, slamming the phone down onto the counter scares Leo into racing back into the guest room. Silently cursing himself, he calls out, asking if Leo is up, as if he hasn’t been hearing him move around for the last few minutes. 

Unsurprisingly, there’s no answer. He repeats himself at Leo’s bedroom door, before letting himself in and sitting down at the end of Leo’s bed, carefully keeping his distance. God, Phil wants to hug the boy, but he knows Leo’s not ready yet. “Hey, I have to head into work for a few hours today, so I need you to get up, okay?" he says. 

Leo gets up, thankfully. He follows Phil into the kitchen, quietly asks for oatmeal, and sits as close to the door and as far away from Phil as he can manage. 

Phil pulls out the brown sugar for him before he puts his shoes on, checking his watch. He has about two minutes before he’s definitely going to be late for work. With that in mind, he straightens his tie and triple-checks that Leo will be fine on his own for a few hours. As he closes and locks the door behind him, Phil can practically _hear_ Leo relax. 

Unfortunately, it seems that he’s left his Metro card and normal cell phone behind, a fact he discovers halfway down the hall. So now, he has to go _back_ to his apartment, a fact he regrets as soon as he opens the front door and sees how badly Leo flinches at his return. 

_Way to build his sense of safety, Phil,_ he thinks sarcastically. “Having fun?” he asks out loud, noticing that Leo’s trying to hide whatever he was fidgeting with out of Phil’s line of sight. 

"I just forgot a few things," Phil reassures him, collecting his phone and Metro card from the counter he left them on. "If you need something to fidget with, I have a few bouncy balls in the junk drawer. What's your diagnosis?"

Leo hesitates. "ADHD."

"Got it. Do you take meds for it?" His only answer is a head shake. "Okay, so I don't need to worry about that. Oh, and by the way—can I see what you made?" Leo shakes his head again. "That's fine. Is there anything you'll need for the next few hours that you haven't already mentioned?"

Another head shake.

"In that case, I will be home in—" he checks his watch "—about three hours."

"Okay," Leo says softly.

* * *

As predicted, Phil is a full five minutes late to work, counting up to the moment he sits down at his own desk, coffee in hand. He’s two sips in when he’s summoned to Legal, where he’s immediately put on a Skype call with Jacob Wheeler, who looks like he’s about to burst a vein in his forehead. 

“First things first,” Wheeler says immediately. “Is Leo safe?” 

Phil relaxes at the man’s concern. “He’s at my apartment,” he confirms. “I asked a neighbor to keep an eye out.” 

“And he’s safe there?” 

“It’s one of the safest apartments in D.C. My security system is top-notch.” 

Wheeler slumps in relief at that and opens up the file in front of him, rattling off everything Leo’s been through. Phil holds back a flinch at every injury mentioned. 

_No wonder he’s so terrified._

By the time the call is done, Phil is well on his way to having temporary guardianship, and Wheeler is considerably less wary of him. There still needs to be a background check and forms to sign and everything else, of course, but by the time the ball drops in Times Square on Sunday and the new year is officially rung in, he now has a housemate for the foreseeable future.

**2007**

Leo Valdez, age nine, was never supposed to be a permanent fixture in Phil’s life, but here they are two months later, and there’s no sign of a more permanent placement for Phil’s—ward? Charge? Extremely young roommate? 

(Clint says he’s Phil’s minion; Romanoff goes with "asset." Sitwell describes him as Phil’s "annoyance," until Phil finally gets sick of it and tells him that Leo’s _not_ annoying, he’s in fact much quieter than _any_ kid his age should be; Sitwell stops after that.) 

It’s not until a school-day morning in late February when Phil figures out what he wants Leo to be to him. Watching Leo stumble around the kitchen, still half-asleep, and muttering something about Cap'n Crunch, he realizes that he wants mornings like this to be the rest of his life. 

He wants Leo to be his son. 

A month and several bribes (mostly in the form of cookies) to SHIELD's legal department later, Phil has the initial paperwork done and the next several meetings with Leo’s social worker scheduled, and he’s feeling a _lot_ more confident about the whole process. Just in time for Leo’s tenth birthday, he’s approved as a prospective parent; now all that’s left is coordinating with Texas CPS, and ensuring that no members of Leo’s biological family want to adopt him, and filing the rest of the paperwork, and the adoption hearing itself, and, and, _and_...

It’s a ridiculously complicated process, especially since it’s an _interstate_ adoption, but the look on Leo’s face as he opens his birthday present steals his breath away and makes it all worth it. 

* * *

When SHIELD sends him back to Houston in June, it’s an opportunity to meet Leo’s biological family, so they can formally relinquish whatever claim to Leo they still have. 

The first time he meets Rosa Valdez, he has to stop himself from punching her. She’s nice enough at first. Cordial, even. But Leo has told how she’d threatened him and kicked him out, and Phil knows that this is not a good woman. The less said about that meeting, the better; there had been plenty of raised voices. Phil is very, very glad he sent Leo to hang out with his cousins for the afternoon. 

After a tense afternoon, Phil takes Leo out for ice cream so they can both recover after dealing with her. By the time they find a place, both of them are sweating and someone’s stolen Phil’s dummy wallet. The blast of freezing cold air is a welcome relief; the way Leo beelines for the cases, all shyness temporarily vanished, is even more welcome. 

Just a few short minutes later, as Phil is mulling over his options, the bell over the front door jingles, letting in a preteen girl, who, conspicuously, doesn’t have an adult with her. She starts asking for samples of just about every flavor, working from left to right, before settling on Rocky Road and paying with a fiver. On a hunch, Phil checks his pocket; sure enough, his dummy wallet is back in place, with five dollars missing.

* * *

He and Leo see the girl—Piper—safely back to where her father is working (after she and Leo exchange hotel names and room numbers), but the next day she’s at their hotel, asking to hang out with Leo. Phil hems and haws against their expectant faces and finally decides he can leave them alone for a few hours, reasoning that they’re probably too young to get into any major trouble. 

(He comes back to a wet carpet, popcorn all over the floor, and two sugar-hyped children, and immediately regrets his decision.)

* * *

(At least their blossoming long-distance friendship is running fairly smoothly. Family Court almost doesn’t. At least until Leo’s Tia Rosa is removed from the proceedings. After that, it’s pretty smooth sailing, something Phil can appreciate. That, and the nice, big _IT’S A BOY!_ balloon Samuel Valdez, Jr. gives him on the last day of the proceedings.)

**2008**

Even with most of the government dedicated to finding Tony Stark, Fury still needs agents available for other cases, or at least that's what he tells Phil when he protests being stuck on cases closer to home instead of out in the action. Then a case strikes _really_ close to home, and he's glad (even if it opens him up to Leo's teasing).

Audrey Nathan is a cellist, turned thirty-nine last December, being stalked by a man who apparently absorbs energy. The first few incidents can be dismissed (she _is_ a _very_ good cellist) but the call she makes to the D. C. police department—the one that SHIELD intercepts—pings their radar.

(She's also very pretty. Phil tells himself to shut up whenever that thought crosses his mind. He's too old for the schoolboy crushes that Leo's classmates always fall prey to, the ones that never seem to last more than a week.)

(That doesn’t stop him from asking her out once her stalker has been arrested. She declines, but she does give him her number. Who knows? Maybe it will lead somewhere.)

* * *

Phil checks in with Audrey a few days later, just to make sure she’s okay. Somehow one exchange becomes another, until they’re texting each other every day and Leo is teasing him about his attempts at romance.

When he sees a stuffed giraffe on Sitwell's windowsill, he takes a picture and sends it to her.

(The next day, he finds a rubber duck in his pocket while he's talking to Sitwell. As he leaves, he pauses, smiles at Jasper, and sets it down right next to the door.)

(Three weeks later—shortly after Audrey asks him out for the first time—Sitwell finally loses it. There's screaming involved, and crying, and at least two stuffed animals have their heads ripped off. It's a miracle he keeps his job. Or a tragedy.)

* * *

Bahrain is a shitshow.

On the flight back, Phil knows that when they land, he's going to skip the debriefing and go straight home and hug Leo to pieces. Piper's in California, or he'd hug her too.

(He wishes, not for the first time, that he could keep pictures of them in his wallet. But Phil Coulson, father of two, has to stay separate from Phil Coulson, agent of SHIELD. He's never regretted it more.)

Next to him, May stares vacantly out the window, curled in the fetal position. She hasn't moved in fifteen minutes. The other agents pretend they're not staring, but they are.

Phil just keeps smoothing his hand over her hair, humming wordlessly to her. She drinks a little bit of water and eats a couple of airplanes peanuts, and manages fitful bursts of sleep for a few minutes at a time. 

“Do you want to stay at my place tonight?” he asks her softly, during one of her more awake moments. 

She nods, silently, curling her head into his neck, and Phil glares all the other agents into silence.

* * *

Pepper Potts is, put simply, a goddess. 

Not to slight his girlfriend, but Phil finds himself tongue-tied whenever he’s around Miss Potts. At least Audrey seems to find it amusing, teasing him over text about whether or not Miss Potts has a six-pack. 

Miss Potts is also badass enough to figure out Obadiah Stane’s double-dealing before anyone at SHIELD can, but before Phil and some other agents can arrest him, Stane takes off in his own version of Stark’s armor. As Stane and Stark battle it out over Los Angeles, Phil goes to work creating a cover story for Stark. He lays it out for Stark the next morning before the press conference; Stark says he’ll take it into consideration.

* * *

“I am Iron Man,” Stark says on live television, and Phil fights the urge to facepalm.

**2009**

After almost a year of knowing her, he decides it’s time to introduce Audrey to Leo. It’s a weekend when Piper is visiting, and when Phil comes back home after picking Audrey up, the two of them are in Leo’s room, building something with one of Leo’s sets of Tinker Toys. Audrey comments that the apartment is too big for a bachelor living alone; Phil just smiles and calls for Leo to come in. 

He’s not sure how well the kids hit it off with her, but she gets along with them well enough, to Phil’s relief. Leo, in particular, warms up fairly slowly, until the science fair at his middle school at the end of the school year, when a handful of older students try to sabotage Leo’s creation and receive the tongue-lashing of a lifetime from Audrey; Leo warms up to her much more quickly after that. 

Through most of June, there are inexplicable, unseasonable storms centering on New York City. Phil ends up assigned to helping the Hammond Foundation branch in the area with the clean-up efforts. 

In late August, the kids start their first year at SHIELD’s General Academy, with notes placed in their files—not by Phil—not to separate them unless truly necessary; as a result, the two of them get to share a dorm room, regardless of normal SHIELD policies. 

For Phil, work and life go on as they always have: strange, entertaining, occasionally rewarding, occasionally terrifying, but never, ever boring.

**2010**

Piper and Leo start acting squirrelly around mid-January, but Phil isn’t worried, even as it continues for months; they’ll come to him when they’re ready.

In the meantime, with Stark Industries gearing up for the Expo, he’s assigned to babysitting Stark again. It’s a terrible mission, except for two things: One, he gets to handle a genuine, World War II-era Captain America shield. Two, he gets to threaten to tase Stark into unconsciousness and watch Supernanny as Stark drools into the carpet. 

Phil ends up introducing his family to Stark, after the disaster that the Expo becomes. He immediately regrets it. The thought of Leo and Stark working together would be enough to keep him up at night; Piper and Miss Potts, working together, could easily take over the world. Add to that the kids demanding a way to talk to Stark’s AI at all times, and Phil can see nothing but headaches coming from this. 

At least Miss Potts gives good advice when it comes to jewelry.

* * *

One sunny morning in early June, Phil goes out to buy a ring. 

He has it all planned out—the dinner, the dancing, the flowers—but of course it doesn’t go as planned. 

Instead, it happens like this: 

He asks Leo for permission first, because Leo is the most important person in his life, and he deserves to have a say in this. 

Then, on impulse, Phil asks if he wants to go do it right now. Then Leo grabs the camcorder, and they go find Audrey in the living room, and Phil gets a few nice kisses in before he’s on one knee and Audrey starts crying and all but tackles him in joy.

He’s pretty sure that’s a yes.

* * *

Just two weeks later, Leo and Piper are invited to spend a week with some of Leo’s more distant relatives in southern Mexico, coming home on the Friday before the Fourth of July. 

On Wednesday morning, there’s an earthquake in the same state the kids are in. Just three hours after Phil hears about it, they call to say they’re coming home. 

Over twelve hours later, just before midnight, their flight lands in D.C.

The question of why they’re coming home early dies on Phil’s lips when Leo and Piper walk into the waiting area, battered and bruised and flinging themselves into Phil and Audrey’s arms like they thought they’d never see them again. 

But now they're home, thank God. His children are home and safe.

* * *

His first night as a married man is spent curled up on the couch with his wife, where they’d fallen asleep watching Leverage. 

His second night as a married man is spent in the Caribbean, courtesy of SHIELD and over a month of unused leave. They leave Piper and Leo with Natasha, with the promise that she won’t give them any new and interesting weapons and that Piper will visit her father at least once. With the kids secured, Phil and Audrey are able to spend four weeks in the sun: no missions, no rehearsals, no kids. Utter _perfection._

* * *

During their first week back in D.C., Audrey meets a homeless eight-year-old named Helena. Helena’s social worker meets them at home, and is _perfectly happy to start working up the preliminary paperwork now, if you’re sure you want to adopt her._

 _Oh, we are_ absolutely _sure,_ Phil thinks but doesn’t say out loud, sharing a smile with Audrey.

* * *

Shortly after they begin adopting Helena, Piper approaches him. “HYDRA still exists. It’s hidden inside SHIELD,” she says matter-of-factly. She places a binder on the table and starts flipping through it. “Here’s a partial list of children associated with SHIELD; here’s the current list of safehouses I’ve secured; here’s the outline of an evacuation protocol in the event that their safety is compromised.” While Phil is goggling over that, Piper puts a few sheets of paper down, written in a mix of the Cyrillic, Greek, and Arabic alphabets. “Here’s the list of loyal agents I’ve compiled so far. It’s not as coded as it could be, but we did our best.” On top of that, she dumps a bulging file folder onto the desk. “And _this_ is all the evidence of HYDRA that Leo and I have managed to compile.” 

Phil finally finds his voice, looking up at his daughter. “You realize we’ll have to go to Fury with this?” 

_Now_ Piper looks nervous.

**2011**

Piper and Leo start disappearing on weekends. When asked for their location, JARVIS refuses to say anything except that they’re safe. They come home on Sunday night—or early Monday morning, with barely enough time to shower, change clothes, and grab a snack and their backpacks before school—with new scabs and new bruises. On April 14th, the last day before Spring Break, they come home from school just long enough to hug Audrey, Phil, and Helena, pack for the next eleven days, and take off to God knows where. Phil resigns himself to not seeing his children until the Tuesday after next. 

They come home the Saturday before they’re supposed to, because Leo has a bullet in his shoulder. 

“Explain,” Audrey orders them, when the two of them arrive home, ragged and exhausted, with a bloody bandage on Leo’s left shoulder. 

_”Fuck,”_ Leo mutters; Phil decides to pretend he doesn’t hear it. 

He gets them settled on the couch with hot chocolate and clean clothes. “So where were you this time?” he asks. 

Leo mutters something under his breath. “Did you just say _Alabama?”_ Audrey asks. 

“No, I said _ow._ My shoulder hurts,” he tries to improvise. 

“That was a terrible lie,” Piper tells him.

“Focus,” Phil reminds them.

The two of them look at each, seemingly talking it over without saying a word. Then, as always, Piper takes the lead. “What do you know about mythology?”

The story that spills out is fantastical, almost unbelievable, but Phil’s worked for SHIELD for twenty-five years, and he knows the truth when he sees it. 

And it’s completely terrifying. 

Helena charges out of the hallway where she’d been eavesdropping as Leo starts to describe the building collapsing in Oaxaca and climbs into his lap. Leo wraps his arms around her, holding back tears. 

“When did all of this start?” Phil asks gently. 

Piper looks up with red eyes. “The Wars, you mean?” She shrugs sadly. “June of 2004, I think?”

Seven years. This has been going on for _almost seven years._

Phil reaches out to take Audrey’s hand in his own, searching for comfort. “How did you get involved?” Audrey asked. 

“In Oaxaca,” Leo offers up. ”That’s when we found out about... _everything._ We already knew a little bit because of our powers, but that’s where we found out about the Wars and that there were more people like us. Then it turned out that An—one of our classmates is a werewolf and her great-grandpa had heard of us because of Oaxaca and then we _really_ got involved.

“That’s how Exodus really got going,” Piper adds. “Most of the safe houses on the Exodus list are enclaves, places where preters—people with powers and supernatural beings—can live openly; our classmate’s family home was the first.”

”We’ve been helping where we can. We didn’t get old enough to fight until our last birthday. Usually I work as a medic.” 

”And I’m usually with the bucket brigade.” 

”Where did this start? Where is it happening now?” Phil asks urgently, itching to jot all of this down.

”It started in the Middle East, as far as anyone can tell. It’s the birthplace of civilization, it makes sense, you know?”

”These days,” Leo picks up, “The Wars are mostly just in North and South America. Everywhere else it’s over or almost over. We figure there’s a couple of years left of fighting, so if the world gets saved every time, then it should all be over then.” 

”Why is all of this even happening—do you know?”

”That’s the thing—shit like this doesn’t normally happen. And I know the Isolation really fucked up the records but people have been digging up a ton of stuff from before the Isolation—”

”—and there’s no record of anything like this happening, even going back to ancient times. There’s records of individual battles for the fate of the world, but those battles were spread out over thousands of years, not just a decade or so,” Piper finishes.

”Could be because we’re all so connected now,” Leo suggests. Piper nods in agreement.

Questions pour out from there, asking for specifics, asking _why you? Why does this have to be your fight?_

“There aren’t enough grown-ups who can fight that are still alive,” Leo whispers. 

It makes a horrible, horrible kind of sense. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Growth charts used to determine Leo’s height and weight: <https://www.magicfoundation.org/Growth-Charts/>  
> Height: <https://halls.md/chart/boys-height-h.htm>  
> Weight: <https://halls.md/chart/boys-weight-h.htm>
> 
> For non-Americans, Houston is an hour behind Washington, D.C.
> 
> Sooo… did you know that you can find [the school year schedules for the Washington, D.C school district](https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/dcps-calendar-past-school-years) going all the way back to 2004? Because I sure didn’t until I needed to look it up! Spring break in 2011 technically ran from Monday, April 18th, to Monday, April 25th (yes, they also got the 25th off, I’m totally not jealous… never mind that I finished high school years ago), but D. C. students get April 16th—the anniversary of Lincoln signing the [Compensated Emancipation Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Compensated_Emancipation_Act) in 1862–as a day off from school. Since April 16th, 2011, was a Saturday, they got the 15th off instead. So if you’re someone who believes that Spring Break starts with the weekend, like I do, then the students of D. C. got eleven days of Spring Break that year. (...Still not jealous.)
> 
> Second chapter is going up tomorrow morning, between 8 to 10 a.m. Pacific Time.


	2. his children's hearts break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer, and he watched his children’s hearts break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him.-Harper Lee, _To Kill a Mockingbird_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to Inlovewithreading1 and Arrakis_Star for their comments on Chapter One!

**2011**

Just a few weeks later, there’s anomalous atmospheric readings in New Mexico and Phil’s hauled out of his nice warm bed next to his beautiful wife for a briefing at the Triskelion and a red-eye to Roswell. 

After an… _interesting_ stop at a convenience store, and an even more interesting interaction with the local astrophysicist and her intern, and after “Donald Blake” tries to break into the temporary base where they’re housing the 0-8-4, it’s determined that “Donald Blake” is actually Thor, the Norse god of Thunder (temporarily mortal), and the 0-8-4 is actually the famous Mjölnir. 

Phil wonders, briefly, if this is part of the Wars.

A giant automaton crashes down near town, somehow resulting in Thor getting his godhood back. Thor goes back to Asgard. SHIELD packs up their presence in Puente Antiguo. 

Life goes on. 

* * *

In November, after a short visit home, Phil is reassigned to Project PEGASUS, working with the Tesseract—something that will keep him away from his family even longer. Within the week, Audrey Skypes him to tell him she’s pregnant and has a job offer in Portland, Oregon. 

“You should take it,” Phil tells her, wishing he could be there. He can’t stop grinning the rest of the day.

**2012**

In February of 2012, he’s briefly pulled from Project PEGASUS for one very big reason: the plane _Captain effing America_ went down in has been found. _Intact._

Never mind that Greenland is freezing this time of year; when he arrives in the Valkyrie, seeing the iconic design of Cap’s shield under a thin layer of snow more than makes up for it. 

Painfully slowly, inch by inch, they melt the ice surrounding Cap and his shield. The medical team takes over, trying to extract some usable DNA to officially identify him. The hours pass excruciating slowly, until someone shouts, “Holy _shit!_ I think I’ve got a pulse!” 

“Of course you do; you wouldn’t be alive without it!” someone else calls. 

“No, I mean—I think the Captain has a pulse! It’s thready, but it’s definitely there.” 

The site becomes a hive of activity, and Phil barely lets himself hope. That his childhood hero could be alive, after all this time… 

They load the Captain into the Quinjet, careful to keep him from thawing out too fast. “He’s waking up!” someone yells. “We need to sedate him!” 

As one of the medical staff readies an injection, and another tries to find an unfrozen patch of skin where they can inject the Captain, Fury sidles up to Phil. “I know you’re enjoying this,” he begins, and Phil gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. 

“Sir?” he asks. 

“You’re needed back in Nevada.” 

_Back to Project PEGASUS,_ Phil thinks, in resignation. At least he got to have this moment.

* * *

The Tesseract shoots a beam of light across the room. A portal—or something that looks damn close—coalesces out of the blast. 

Loki of Asgard steps through, and nothing is ever the same.

* * *

After sixteen years, the Avengers Initiative is finally activated. How could it not be?

Phil gets to threaten some Russian terrorists as he extracts Natasha; Natasha goes to bring in Dr. Banner, while Phil has to deal with Stark. But that's made up for when Phil gets to meet _Captain effing America_ (for real this time), and make an ass out of himself in front of _Captain effing America_ (and he would pay good money for Leo to never find out about that). 

They all regroup on the Helicarrier, where Phil nearly tears Fury a new one when he sees Leo and Piper on board, until Fury tells him Hill insisted that they be there. 

“Maria, what the hell?” Phil hisses when he finds her. 

She shrugs. “Remember that town in Indiana? About twenty-five years ago?” she asks, apropos of nothing. 

“Of course I do; it was one of my first missions. Why are you asking?” 

“I lived there, briefly, when I was four or so,” she says quietly. “I can’t tell you more, not when there’s so many people who aren’t cleared to know about it around.” She nods towards where Leo is standing at one of the consoles, Piper’s head hooked over his shoulder. “But they’re supposed to be here.”

There’s no more time to talk: Loki’s been found in Germany, Thor makes his arrival, and soon enough, chaos is unleashed on the Helicarrier. 

Phil races into the room Loki is supposed to be caged in, grabbing one of the guns modeled on the Destroyer along the way. He takes aim at the now-escaped god, only to feel something slick and sharp slide through his chest from behind. 

_Oh,_ he thinks, looking down at the tip of the scepter jutting out from his chest. _Well,_ fuck.

He scans the room until he finds the real Loki. He sets off the Destroyer gun. Fury is there, telling him to stay awake.

Someone fits small, familiar hands over his chest.

"This was never gonna work, if they didn't have something to... to..." _Motivate them,_ he wants to say, but he can't get the words out.

"We want to motivate them, not break them," he hears Nick say, and he remembers that Leo is on board the Helicarrier, that he's already lost one parent, that...

And then the world fades to black.

* * *

The next thing he knows, he's laying in a hospital bed. The nurse tells him that they had to put him in a coma, but they need to ask him a few questions and then they'll put him under again.

He looks around while he answers questions about how he's feeling, about his family and childhood and the basic facts of his life. This isn't Bethesda.

He sees the equipment.

He realizes what Nick has done.

He screams.

* * *

Every time they wake him up, he figures out where he is. Every time, he tries to get away. Every time, they catch him, and put him back under, and erase a little more of his knowledge of the TAHITI project.

* * *

He wakes up. He looks around. He asks where he is, because this isn't Bethesda.

"After your initial surgery, you were transferred to a facility devoted to recovery, since you need more one-on-one care than Bethesda could provide," the nurse explains cheerfully.

He asks where he is.

She ignores him. She starts asking the usual questions.

He answers the questions. He goes back to sleep.

* * *

"Hello, beautiful," he tells the screen. Audrey smiles at him, exhausted, lying on a hospital bed just like his. His room isn't as nice as hers. ( _Why aren't there any windows?_ his mind whispers at him.) She laughs at his pouting face.

It aches that he can't be there as she screams, as the doctor tells her to push. He should be the one holding her hand, not their children. He should be there, not here _(wherever this is)._

Wailing fills the air. Tears run down his cheeks. Audrey grins in joy and croons, "Welcome to the world."

He wishes he could be there.

* * *

He asks where he is. He knows this isn't Bethesda.

The nurse tells him. She's lying.

He goes back to sleep. _(Something's wrong.)_

* * *

He asks where he is.

The nurse tells him.

He accepts it. He answers the questions. He goes back to sleep.

* * *

"Sir?"

"Welcome back, Agent Coulson."

* * *

The next time they bring him out of the coma is the last time. Audrey's there. Their children aren't. Lena and Addy are staying with Robin across the street. Leo and Piper are busy saving the world, or at least getting ready to. (Also, the President got kidnapped and recovered, the Vice President is a traitor, Tony blew up most of his suits, and Piper is grounded forever.)

**2013**

The first time he holds his youngest daughter, she's nearly six months old, and it takes him about two seconds to decide that Adelaide Esperanza Phillippa Nathan ("You named her _Philippa? Really?")_ is The Cutest Baby In The World.

Poking at the Widow's Bites? Cutest thing ever. (Natasha spends five minutes lecturing her goddaughter about why that's a Bad Idea.)

Gnawing on an explosive arrow? Cutest thing ever. (Clint stops leaving his arrows lying around after that.)

Stealing his glasses? Cutest thing ever. ("Give those back!" "NEVER!" her answering wail probably means, and he wonders if any of the Chatterbox agents are fluent in Baby-speak.)

(He also learns that one Nicholas Joseph Fury is secretly an honest-to-God _marshmallow_ where babies are concerned. Phil films it for future ~~blackmail purposes~~ reference.)

It would be perfect, if Leo and Piper were there. 

It would be perfect, but Leo and Piper aren’t there, and he isn’t allowed to know where they are. 

They’re doing good work, saving the world—Phil likes to think he taught them that—but he doesn’t even know where they _are_ from day to day. His son and his oldest daughter are off risking their lives, fighting a war—even if they won’t tell him and Audrey, Phil _knows_ that’s what they’re doing—and their Tuesday phone calls home reveal nothing.

Spring turns to summer and there are earthquakes in the Mediterranean, in places where there aren’t usually earthquakes. An inexplicable sinkhole opens up in Rome, swallowing several high-end cars. At one point, both Leo and Piper drop out of contact for five days and then pretend that they’re completely fine and that something as simple as _not having Internet access_ would prevent them from staying in touch. 

There are more earthquakes throughout the Mediterranean, several in Greece alone. A few geologists start questioning aloud if there’s something important they’ve missed about the volcanism and plate tectonics in the region. Adelaide turns one. July turns to August. There’s a massive earthquake in a rural part of Long Island, and a gilded envelope on the kitchen table. 

It tells them to go to New York City, to the Empire State Building, and ask for the six hundredth floor. 

Phil is pretty sure that the Empire State Building doesn’t _have_ a sixth hundredth floor, but the man at the front desk—who’s reading something with a blue sky, some birds, and a girl with frankly _terrifying_ hair on the front cover—rolls his eyes, makes Audrey show him the invitation, gives them a key, and waves them towards the elevator. 

The elevator music is some unholy cross between the Bee Gees and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Phil spends the whole ride up trying to decide if the music is worse than some of the times he’s been tortured. It’s a toss-up. 

It’s all worth it when he and his family step out of the elevator and into… 

“Olympus,” Audrey whispers next to him. 

There’s nowhere else they can be. Nowhere that would have this sort of Greek architecture, that would be floating seemingly untethered in the sky above New York City—the light on the hill for generations of immigrants, the city of fear and shining hope, the city that crammed eight million of the best and worst of humanity into three hundred square miles. Phil has a sudden appreciation for the poetry of it all, that something from one of the oldest civilizations in the world would find itself in a city and country constantly in the remaking.

“It’s beautiful,” Audrey breathes in awe. Phil takes her hand in his own, and watches as her other hand finds Helena’s as easily as breathing. He tightens his grip on Adelaide, who’s fussing a little in her sleep, and they step into the throne room of the gods.

They’ve barely walked in when Piper is racing towards them, completely bypassing her own father. Phil has barely a moment to be disconcerted at seeing Piper without Leo at her side before she’s buried her face in Audrey’s shirt; all Phil can make out between her sobs is Leo’s name. 

All Phil can do is wrap his arms around his loves, knowing only the worst circumstances could have separated his oldest children. 

“Piper? You good?” asks a blond boy with glasses. 

Piper slowly pulls out of the group hug, wiping at her eyes. “I—I think so,” she says, and Phil’s heart breaks all over again at the hitch in her voice. 

The boy wraps his arm around Piper’s shoulders and presses a kiss to her forehead. _Oh, so_ that’s _how it is._ “You wanna introduce me, Pipes?” he asks her softly. 

Piper hiccups. “Right, yeah. Mom, Dad, this is Jason; Jason, these are my parents, and Lena and Addy. Can I hold Adelaide?” she asks Audrey. “I think it’ll help.” 

Audrey passes the toddler over; Adelaide babbles at her sister and smacks her hands on Piper’s face. “How are you holding up?” Phil asks her. 

Piper sighs. “I have a massive headache right now. I was nauseous for a while, but I’m not right now.” Addy mumbles something and Piper turns her attention to her, cooing, “I know, baby girl, I know, I’m home. I’m not gonna leave you again.” 

Adelaide reaches up and smacks Piper’s nose, squealing, “Pippa!” 

Piper freezes and then melts into a soft smile, the first one Phil has seen from her today. “Yeah, that’s me. You know me, huh? You know who your favorite oldest sister is?” 

"Me!" Helena pipes up. 

Piper looks at her, her eyes still red from crying. "No, you're her favorite old _er_ sister. I'm her favorite old _est_ sister." 

Helena considers that for a minute, before agreeing with all the seriousness an eleven-year-old can muster. While Audrey asks Piper a question, Phil turns to Jason. “So do you know what will happen if you ever hurt her?” 

Jason sighs. “You’ll kill me, right?” 

Phil leans in closer to him. “I will cut you into pieces and scatter them over the entirety of North America.” 

“Dad, please don’t traumatize Helena,” Piper says in exasperation. Phil reaches over and ruffles Lena’s hair. After a second of thought, he ruffles Piper’s as well. 

Piper’s biological father wanders over then, asking, “Piper? Who are these people?” 

Piper shifts on her feet, half-turning to face her father. “Dad, these are Leo’s parents. I think you met Audrey and Helena after the Battle of New York. You wouldn’t have met Phil, though, or Adelaide.” 

Mr. McLean holds out his hand. “I’m Tristan McLean, Piper’s father. It’s nice to meet you.” 

_I know,_ Phil thinks. He shakes Mr. McLean’s hand. “I’m Phil Coulson.” Piper’s _other_ father, he bites back. “It’s nice to meet you, too.” 

Mr. McLean keeps talking, but Phil’s eyes keep roaming around the room. It’s hard to miss the way the other teenagers in the room are milling around, constantly checking in with each other. One by one, Piper calls them over to meet Phil and Audrey; some of them drag her off to meet their parents in turn.

It seems like hours pass before—

“Hey, Princess, did you miss me?” a familiar voice yells from across the room. 

Piper spins around, her face lighting up; barely a second passes before she’s springing across the room and into Leo’s arms. They practically melt into each other, with Leo tucking his head into Piper’s neck. Phil can barely hear them murmuring to each other words he can’t make out. 

When the kids finally pull away from each other, Phil has less than a second to brace himself before Leo is flinging himself into Audrey’s arms, nearly knocking her over. Audrey pulls him in and rests her chin on the top of his head; Leo sighs happily. Phil wraps his arms around them as Lena slips into the hug, and Piper convinces the girl Leo brought with him to join in. 

When they disengage and Phil can finally get a good look at his son, his breath catches in his throat. Leo… Leo looks like he’s been dragged through Hell. Backwards. 

A few thin streams of blood are trickling down his forehead and arms. Half of his clothes are burned away, he’s completely pale, and he’s moving like every step is painful. Most disturbing of all, Phil swears he can see what looks like _shrapnel_ sticking out of Leo’s skin in some places. 

When the dark-haired boy claps Leo on the shoulder, Leo flinches, _hard_. He’s almost immediately rushed into surgery, leaving Phil with a lot of questions and not a whole lot of answers. 

The entire time Leo is in surgery, Phil paces outside the operating room. Piper is being allowed to hover in the room itself, as long as she doesn’t get in Apollo’s way (and the Greek god of medicine is operating on his son, and how is this his life?).

He startles when the door slams open and Piper shouts, “HE’S OKAY! Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle—” 

The rest of the sentence is lost as Phil catches her up in a bear hug; he barely beats Audrey into the operating-room-turned-recovery-room. Leo is still asleep, but Apollo says, “He’ll come around soon,” as he’s putting the last of his tools away. 

Sure enough, Leo’s eyes flutter open within a few minutes. “You gave us quite a scare, there,” Phil tells him, letting his mild tone disguise his racing heart. 

“Hey, Dad,” Leo mumbles. Phil reaches over and squeezes his hand. 

Apparently, Apollo had to leave some of the shrapnel in him; Leo jokes that he’s part-cyborg now. Audrey sets Adelaide down on the bed with him, after clearing it with Apollo. Leo lets the one-year-old climb onto his chest, rubbing his hand up and down her back. 

“Calypso, come on,” Piper invites; Phil looks to see the young woman hovering in the doorway uncertainly. 

“Sunshine?” Leo asks, trying to crane his neck to see her. 

Calypso moves into the room, inching towards his bedside. “Yes, I’m here.” Now that he isn’t worried as much about Leo, Phil can tell that her voice has a strange accent to it, one he hasn’t heard before. 

“Dad?” Piper says. 

Phil looks over to her. “Yeah?” 

“Can Jason and Calypso move in with us? Or at least Calypso? She, uh… doesn’t have anywhere else she can live, unless she wants to live at Camp Half-Blood.”

“What is this, the Nathan Home for the Wayward?” Phil jokes. 

Audrey looks up. “What was that?” 

“Piper asked if Calypso could move in with us,” he tells her. Calypso looks up from her conversation with Leo, nods in confirmation, and goes back to the discussion. 

Audrey shrugs. “Why not?” She pauses. “Didn’t I hear you ask about Jason as well?” she asks Piper. 

Piper nods, blushing a little. 

Audrey smirks at her. “So long as you sleep in separate bedrooms,” she teases. “That goes for you two as well, Leo and Calypso!”

* * *

They head to Stark Tower with Jason and Calypso after that, where they end up watching Star Wars for what’s left of the afternoon. All eight of them end up staying the night, but Piper, Leo, Jason, and Calypso have to go to the Greek demigod summer camp the next morning (after Leo and JARVIS hack into the federal government and create a legal identity for Calypso). Two days later, Audrey, Helena, and Adelaide head back home to Portland; Phil returns to work the same day. 

The War are over, and life goes on.

The summer ends, and Piper, Leo, and surprisingly, Calypso start school at SHIELD’s senior academies—respectively, the Operations Academy, the Academy of Science and Technology, and the Communications Academy. (Phil may or may not shed at least one tear of pride that at least one of the kids is going to Communications.)

The summer ends, and he has a new team, consisting of May, two scientists collectively known as FitzSimmons, and a specialist named Ward who Agent Garrett recruited—and, after tracking down the source of some of the Rising Tide broadcasts, a civilian hacker named Skye. It’s rough sailing at first; the younger agents don’t get their act together until one of Phil’s old friends—someone he’s known longer than he’s known _Leo_ —decides to betray them and steal the 0-8-4 they were sent to find. 

Their next case takes them to Malta; the next, to Phil’s former protégé, who’s been coerced into criminal activity; the next, to Hong Kong (and one of Skye’s ex-boyfriends along the way). 

They deal with a Chitauri helmet, contaminated with alien infectious material, and with Ward and Fitz being sent to Russia without an extraction plan. In early November, the world is invaded by aliens again—only this time it's in London, and Thor (along with Dr. Foster, Dr. Selvig, the intern with the iPod and the intern's intern) stops it almost single-handedly.

Phil and his team are assigned to help with the cleanup, and eventually, to tracking down an Asgardian staff. Leo, Piper, and Calypso—or rather, Cadets McLean, Metaxas, and Valdez—are temporarily assigned to the team as “mythology experts.” (In other words: “We don’t know a bilgesnipe from a Balrog, so we may as well assign the only people at SHIELD—however junior they are—who’ll admit to first-hand, in-depth knowledge of mythology to this case. Even if they’re only familiar with a completely different pantheon.”)

It’s the first time he truly gets to see them in action outside of sparring, and it takes his breath away. The way they seamlessly work together, and play off each other as naturally as breathing—he suddenly has a whole new understanding of why their teachers, supernatural acquaintances, and classmates speak so highly of their abilities in combat: natural talent and sheer experience, combined with their ability to understand each other without a word, makes for a nearly-unstoppable team. 

Needless to say, they wipe the floor with their enemies; there are hardly any left standing for May to take down when Piper tosses the Berserker Staff to her.

* * *

The beginning of the end starts with an explosion. 

Phil ends up kidnapped. By the time the team rescues him, he’s exhausted, disoriented, and doesn’t know what to think. If his survival after being stabbed by Loki's scepter wasn’t just the miracles of modern surgery, wasn’t just his own sheer ability to stay alive...

It only gets worse from there.

**2014**

February, and May and Phil track the agent who found Skye to Mexico City. Without them, the team runs into so much trouble at the Academy that he’s never letting out of his sight again. 

(On the upside, Leo and Piper—and Calypso—finally get to permanently join the team, legal ages be damned.)

* * *

March, and Skye is shot in the stomach, and Phil learns why he’s still alive.

* * *

April, and his world shatters into pieces.

April, and SHIELD is gone. 

April, and Audrey is in danger. 

He leaves Piper at the new base, with May and Ward and Skye and Koenig. He brings Leo and Calypso with him, with Trip and FitzSimmons.

At least the latter agents’ squeaks of surprise when he reveals his marital status are entertaining.

* * *

Once Daniels is finally dead, they return to the Providence base, where they learn that Ward is HYDRA and has been all along, and that he would have killed Koenig if not for Piper’s timely intervention. 

And he. Has. Skye. 

Skye, who’s somehow become as much of a daughter to him as Piper, or Helena, or Adelaide. 

That makes this personal. 

“I’m not sure why Aunt May left,” Piper tells him, when they have a moment to themselves. “I think she’s looking for answers about how—how you survived.” Her breath hitches for a second, but she holds back her tears. “We’ll find Skye first, then we’ll find Aunt May,” she says, almost to herself, then she looks up at Phil. “Deal?” 

“Deal,” Phil tells her.

* * *

They find Skye in time, thank God, and that flying escape from the BUS in Lola is going to be something to tell the grandchildren about. On the other hand, Providence is now compromised, thanks to Hill, so now the team has to be based out of a _hotel,_ of all places. “Why did you do it?” he asks her. 

“I was just following orders,” she says. 

“Don’t give me that,” Phil snaps at her. 

Maria looks him in the eye. “I was _just following orders_ ,” she emphasizes; Phil is suddenly reminded of the conversation they had on the Helicarrier the day of the New York invasion (and has it really been two years already?). 

Phil relaxes minutely; hopefully, he’ll be able to trust Maria again soon.

* * *

Fury turns up, as cryptic as ever, looking very much not dead, and declares Phil the director of SHIELD and an Avenger in his own right. After passing Phil the metaphorical torch, he leaves again, heading off to hunt HYDRA in Europe.

Skye moves in with Phil and Audrey. Leo and Piper drag them to a very confusing meeting, and it somehow ends with the two of them running a proto-nation. Four separate bodyguards come with the job, pushing their already-crowded household to the brink.

* * *

One night, on a weekend when somehow all of them are home, Phil wakes up in a cold sweat, distant gunfire still ringing in his head. He slips out of bed, careful not to wake Audrey, hoping some warm milk will help. Just as he hits the top step, he’s distracted by low voices from Leo and Piper’s room. 

He knocks on the door, waiting until Tom quietly tells him to come in. Piper and Leo are curled up on their bed, on top of the covers. Leo looks up at him with glassy eyes; Piper doesn’t look up at him at all, focusing on running her fingers through Leo’s hair. 

“I keep seeing that sinkhole, the one in Rome,” Leo says thickly. “When Percy and Annabeth fell.”

“Bahrain,” Phil says quietly. 

Tom scoots aside on his bed, making room for Phil, a small smile on his face as they watch the teenagers lapse back into their usual silent communication. 

Audrey comes knocking next, woken up by Phil’s absence, despite his care, and joins him and Tom. A half hour or so later, when they’ve begun drifting off to sleep, footsteps walking from the girls’ room to Phil and Audrey’s room wakes them up. The footsteps pad down the hall until Skye appears at the door. “I woke up and I thought it was a dream,” she says, tear tracks visible on her cheeks in the dim light of the nightlight. “I thought I’d dreamed up you guys and Family Court and everything.” She joins them on Tom’s bed, nestling as best she can between Phil and Audrey. 

Jason stumbles in a few minutes later, confessing to a nightmare about a time he was captured in Detroit before flopping down and wrapping himself around Leo and Piper. Becca and Calypso follow, the latter taking one look at the room before going downstairs to make hot chocolate and warm milk. She brings Kiera back with her and the two of them distribute the drinks; Calypso joins Jason, Leo, and Piper on the larger bed, while Kiera goes to get Jared and Helena, reasoning that if the rest of them couldn’t sleep, the others might as well join them. 

Sure enough, just a minute or so later, she comes back, with Jared holding Adelaide behind her and Helena trailing after them. Lena beelines for the pile of teenagers-and-titaness, while the others sit down at the foot of the same bed. They all lapse into a comfortable silence: crowded but secure, quiet and sleepy, the silence broken by the occasional yawn or snore, until Piper and Leo start mumbling to each other out loud, with Jason and Calypso adding their own fragments of commentary. Slowly, conversation starts up again, more softly than before, and they settle into a cozy rhythm, talking quietly into the night. 

Outside these walls, the world is falling apart and slowly stitching itself back together. Tomorrow, they’ll have to go out, back into the new world in the making; but that’s tomorrow’s problem. But inside, there’s thirteen people in one room, some awake, some asleep, with all the comforts of warm milk and family. 

Outside, the world is spinning on. There’s danger, yes, and fear, and a level of anger and disbelief that Phil hasn’t seen in years. But there’s hope as well, running rampart, and life, as always, keeps going on. 

Outside, the world is dark and loud. 

Inside, the room is cozy and peaceful. 

And life, as it always does, goes on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the “interesting” stop at a convenience store, see _A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer_. For the rest of Phil’s adventures in New Mexico, see _Thor_. 
> 
> For an excellent interpretation of the moment the good Captain was found, I'd like to recommend [Casket Team](https://archiveofourown.org/works/814432), by Ellidfics. 
> 
> The doorman is reading Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce. (I literally just picked up the nearest novel that wasn’t from Rick Riordan Presents to find a cover to describe.) 
> 
> Fun fact: Leo is canonically 5’4”. Amy Acker, who plays Audrey Nathan, is 5’8”.

**Author's Note:**

> Fic title: "[Not Quite Paradise](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hud66BbFnI)," by Bliss 66.
> 
> See you next summer! (And how apropos—Sisters’ Day 2021 is on August first!) 
> 
> (At least I’ve stopped kidding myself about when I’m going to post next…)
> 
> Oh, and by the way: [this helped](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU5fSCZ0oVw3ooh8D5rWwxdPFPoDaiZLU).


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